Thoughts and observations about Modesto and Stanislaus County

Archive for the tag “Glen Wild”

They say the truth is stranger than fiction and that has never been more obvious than in this election cycle. The Modesto Chamber of Commerce, or at least three of their members, have been pulling out all stops in an attempt to steal Measure I from the public. Their two campaign flyers are filled with falsehoods, innuendos,, and blatant lies (that’s as kind as I can be at this point) and now their obfuscating the source of their money.

It’s bad enough they don’t list the FPPC number on either of their flyers. And yes it is required but they have also managed through a series of ‘mishaps’ to make it almost impossible to follow the money.

Where Did the Documentation Go?

So we contacted the County Clerk’s office to try to follow the money trail. Here is the official version: The Modesto Chamber of Commerce faxed to the County Clerk’s office their 497’s which is the document required when a contribution of $1,000 or more is received and it is supposed to be filed within 24 hours of receipt.. But since this is a city Measure it is supposed to go to the City Clerk’s office. ‘Unfortunately’ it was misfiled in the manila folder (no matter how many times people and the BoS have requested, the County Clerk’s office refuses to place these documents on line) of another Political Action Committee or PAC account of the Chambers. This is extremely strange considering 497 documents weren’t supposed to be accepted at the County Clerk’s office period.

For another unknown reason a clerk was rummaging through the outdated PAC file and discovered the document (how lucky for us was that?). It was then forwarded to the City Clerk’s office 11 days late.

Some interesting Coincidences

There is a history between someone who now works at the County Clerk’s office in the election division with access to campaign statements and the Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber and the Bee’s former opinion page editor, who for the last 10 years supported three candidates to the Modesto Irrigation Board, all of whom were sponsored by Bill Lyons (who wanted to sell the free water he gets from his special arrangement with MID). The cabal of three at MID that was in place three years ago, Tom VanGronigan, Glen Wild and Paul Warda, who were supported by the Bee and the Chamber during their election campaigns) were pushing to sell our water to San Francisco. The Bee, Chamber, and Bill Lyons supported the sale which after much intense public discussion was turned down despite the Bee’s endorsement.

Now we see the most current aligning of stars with Bill Lyons pushing against Measure I (he has property in the Beckwith Dakota Triangle – read Wood Colony, that he wants to develop) along with the Modesto Chamber of Commerce and (at this writing the Bee hasn’t made a public comment) with a friend possibly in position to obfuscate the public knowledge of the money trail.

While we will say without any qualms and with many thanks from us that County Clerk Lee Lundrigan looked into events and has been most helpful in explaining the much traveled documentation: an unknown someone in her office ‘accidentally’ accepted wrongly submitted faxes and misfiled these important documents and then someone in her office fortunately discovered the mistake nine days later and then forwarded the documentation the the City Clerks office where it was placed online for the public on Monday afternoon.

Another Coincidence

When checking for updates on the Campaign documents, yesterday, Oct. 22nd was a mandatory reporting day, the former online 497’s were missing. According to the city Clerk’s office the missing documents along with any updates will be online by day’s end.

Why does this matter?

There are several reasons, actually violating FPPC campaign laws would be one. But during an election season opponents and the public have a right to know how much money is involved and where it’s coming from. Since the Chamber and their three donor amigos and their friends like George Petrulakis are very familiar with election laws and rules it’s our opinion this has been willful and orchestrated.

Ahhh secrets, several years ago they were the meat and potatoes of MID’s existence. Why respond to public record requests if you don’t have to? Most recently we’ve been trying to get to the bottom of MID’s farmer to farmer water transfer program and the Return Allocation Program by requesting the names of those selling water and the amounts. Unfortunately time and time again we’ve been refused access to these records of a public resource. When MID’s staff announced they were going to hold private meetings with those same farmers who participated in last years programs we adamantly argued against such secrecy. Unfortunately the Board remained silent. When we threatened to go public staff relented by saying they were going to contact all irrigators. But you and I know who they are going to listen to, all you have top do is follow the money. When Directors John Mensinger and Paul Campbell originally started pushing hard for these programs you had to wonder why. After all these two Directors, who publicly call themselves the “City Boys,” were promoting a ‘farmer to farmer’ program which, of the actual farmers on the Board, two weren’t supporting and one was just willing to listen and eventually supported. The self-proclaimed “city boys” seemed out of their bailiwick. After all Campbell and Mensinger spend much of their time attacking the water irrigation price structure. But maybe there was a reason.

Two $5,000 Campaign Donations

The two largest campaign donations by far came from Bill Lyons to these two men (Mensinger and Campbell). But why would Bill Lyons decide it was to his benefit to have his political puppets push so hard to pass the Farmer to Farmer Transfer Program? In a Garth Stapley article of 4/22/14, Mr. Lyons claimed he was responsible for 54% of the 1,060 acre feet of water in the Return Allocation Program, which in the end delivered a check to Mr. Lyons of at least $ 302,400 and likely more. Unfortunately MID has decided to keep the actual amount and recipients a secret from the very public that own the company. But his big killing, monetarily, was in the Farmer to Farmer Transfers. Irrigation_Operations_Report

Lyons Sweetheart Deal

Unbeknownst to most of the public Bill Lyons and Mapes Ranch negotiated the rights to pump for FREE any water that comes down MID’s canal that cuts through his property going to the river. His is the only entity with the ability to steal this public resource. Maybe this was one of the reasons he and his then puppets, Tom VanGroningen and Glen Wild, were pushing the water sale to San Francisco. Maybe Bill Lyons envisioned acting as a toll booth collector for any water MID might attempt to sell down the river. At the January 22 meeting MID General Manager Roger Van Hoy characterized the MID meeting where the Lyons sweetheart deal was passed, as open and public. This meeting was before Roger’s employment with MID and according to Former MID Director and Board President when the deal was passed, John Kidd is asked about MID meetings back then he likes to say, if there were three members of the public at a meeting then word must have gotten out that someone was bringing donuts.

Bill Lyons has the ability to sell water allocated to his land and then replace it FREE from the canal or to use his many large industrial sized pumps located along the river to supplant his ‘sold’ water. At least in OID’s proposed ‘fallowing’ program they don’t allow the farmer to replace the water by pumping ground water. Most hydrologists agree that using large industrial pumps located close to a river reduces a river’s flow by increasing river bottom seepage. And obviously taking water from MID’s canal before it gets to the river reduces flow to the fish and the delta thereby increasing salinity in farmland down stream.

Directors Mensinger and Campbell’s Decision Unethical and Immoral

In City of Modesto politics taking this kind of campaign donation would require the precipitant to recuse themselves or step back from the discussion and decision. MID has no campaign limits effecting this discussion. We’ve requested for MID to have this discussion several times but have been ignored, which of course sets up this dilemma. As we’ve pointed out this has been an issue for years. VanGroningen, Wild and Warda received money ($5,000 – Lyons seems to find this to be the required amount to purchase MID Directors) from Lyons and were behind the attempted water sale. Fortunately for all of Stanislaus County, Paul Warda changed his mind. Don’t let anyone fool you. Director Warda’s change of heart was the one and only reason the water sale didn’t go through. So Bill Lyons can be defeated, but not easily. Remember he managed to get MID to spend $248,000 on convincing the public the water sale was a good thing and currently is one of the main movers and shakers behind Modesto’s attempt to annex Wood Colony and Salida.

Secrecy and Openness

In the ‘Farmer to Farmer’ program, 3,300 acre feet were passed, transferred at unknown prices by unknown people, but handled by MID staff at a significant cost of staff (both office and field) time. In the Return Allocation Program we cut checks of approx. $540,000 to people whose names we aren’t allowed to know. As a side note we/MID were stuck with $328,000 worth of unsold water costs. They want us to take it on trust that all was investigated and is on the up and up. We, with what we believe is good reason, don’t trust staff.

To be fair Director Byrd did request staff to reconsider but the Board’s attorney response was “That is how we handled it in the past.” There is no legal requirement and Public Record Requests show the Board didn’t vote for secrecy on this issue. We’ve seen how MID staff’s past practices actually work against the ratepayers best interest. Why would we expect things to be different/better if we keep following past procedures and dong them the same way?

Here is MID’s Public Record Response when asked for the people who participated in the buying and selling of our most public of resources, our water. farmertofarmerPPRandredactedresponse

In our opinion a small cabal of greedy people have taken over the Modesto Chamber of Commerce in the last eight to ten years. They run candidates who promote their agenda, many times to the detriment of Modesto citizens. From Tom VanGroningen, Glen Wild, and Jim Mortensen on MID Board to Stephanie Burnside and Dave Cogdill Jr. on the City Council, we’ve helped in the attempt to fight off their influence and it’s one more time into the breach my friends.

Herein the picture are some on the people behind the land grab. And this is the list of names of the Transportation Committee which comprises many of the other plotters. Modesto Chamber of Commerce – Land Use & Transportation Committee Craig Lewis, Brad Hawn, Chris Murphy, George Petrulakis, Tom Nielsen, Ron Jackson, Dennis Wilson, Chris Esther, Kole Seifkin, Ron Ehrke, Mark Buckley, Warren Kirk, Steve Madison, Jim Mortensen, Jeff Burda, Randy Clark, Linda Sadler, Becky Meredith, Bill Zoslocki, Joan Clendenin, Steve Rank And of course the Chamber’s head lobbyist Cecil Russell. If you know any of these people feel free to contact them and register your disapproval.

It’s difficult to expect an open mind from Councilman Bill Zoslocki when he was part of the problem. Little wonder he was being so condescending and speaking like a preschool teacher to their charges. But what is the connection you ask? It goes back to the Village I debacle where developers and the Chamber used their considerable influence to lower building fees which allowed developers like Bill Zoslocki to receive excess profits (in other words become profiteers), but now Councilman Zoslocki is working for Craig Lewis at his branch of Prudential Real Estate. Their constant lament during the Planning Commission presentations/workshops was there wasn’t enough commercial land for THEMto sell. Like we owe them a living and should take/steal land from others and make it available to them. Just how self-entitled can you get?

Brad Hawn (on the lower right) is a former city councilman who the Chamber worked behind the scenes to get placed on LAFCO (Land Formation Commission) which will eventually get to decide if the annexation will go through. Jim Mortensen, a failed MID candidate, was helping the Chamber promoting the water sale to San Francisco and is/was actively promoting the land grab.

George Petrulakis (second from the right) is a land use attorney who wrote most of the Modesto Charter and helped ensure clauses like the one Marsh misused to keep the public from speaking out at city council meetings as the Brown Act allows. Fortunately one of our contributors quoted the case on point (Friant Water Authority v. County of Madera) and eventually the Mayor relented and allowed those who spoke at the Dec.3rd meeting to speak again. Unfortunately if was after many had already gone home. George’s boss from Keystone Development spoke at the meeting to promote the land grab. George’s claim to fame, along with writing the Modesto City Charter, was with Keystone where he threatened to sue Patterson and then he was behind a petition to create a zoning czar in Patterson who would NOT be accountable to the city council just because of a zoning disagreement. He’s one land use attorney we need to keep an eye on.

Of course we can’t overlook the Chambers head lobbyist Cecil Russell especially since Cecil was actively promoting the water sale to San Francisco along with Keating. He and former Modesto Councilwoman Janice Keating, also from the Chamber, are basically speakers for hire and will say almost anything at any time for a payday.

In order to fight fire with fire we suggest a flyer be made and spread around town to businesses who are Modesto Chamber members. The flyer would request support from Modesto shoppers with the goal of saving Wood Colony and while asking the store owners for permission to display the flyer ask the owners to call the Chamber and request they cease and desist.

And this is just the beginning…

Here are more of the denizens of the Modesto Chamber of Commerce

Left to right: Craig Lewis, Ruben Villalobos, Brad Hawn, and of course the lobbyist Cecil Russell.

Tonight’s topics include MID candidates, the Serpa rule, where are our MID payments going, water mining, the latest from the

Planning Commission, Wood Colony and Salida, these topics and more so tune into tonight and find out what you need to know to make decisions important to you, your family and your community. Wednesday at 8:00 PM

During the discussion of the consent calendar we requested some information on several items. Document #11389 in the

amount of $37,946.87 and #11408 in the amount of $8,247.96 were detailed for manual checks. No breakdown was given. And Document #11404 in the amount of $18,229.63 – #11430 in the amount of $12,590.11 – #11459 in the amount of $38,436.15, detailed for prepaid procurement cards and again no detail was given.

$115,450.72 in money for which no detail has been provided is a concern. So we made a public records request for the details regarding these expenditures. When the topic was broached all that was asked for was an explanation. The example we received was “for example it would repay employees for bridge tolls.” Now we don’t know how much of this money was spent on tolls, but using bridge tolls as an example for over $115,000.00 spent between August 6 thru August 27 seems a little ludicrous.

We also questioned a $1,300 dollar charge labeled ‘monthly’ for progress magazine which is a publication by the Modesto Chamber of Commerce. The same chamber which actively supported selling our water long term to San Francisco and which endorses political candidates including those for the Modesto Irrigation District. This presents an ethical dilemma for MID and the ratepayers. We have repeatedly requested this practice be halted to no avail. It may be we’ll have to wait for new candidates to be elected to help support Directors Larry Byrd and Nick Blom.

Three MID candidates to avoid: Jim Mortensen, John Mensinger, and Paul Campbell

Jim Mortensen actually jumped up to be speak during the public comment period to support/endorse (he used both terms) last weeks adoption of the “Serpa” rule in the Board Governance policy specifically section BL-4 (b). Quite honestly I was surprised but maybe I shouldn’t have been. He was nominated by Tom Van Groningen to the Water Advisory Board. He promised NOT to run for the MID Board and as soon as possible he pulled papers and signed up to run. Jim Mortensen has also publicly spoken in favor of selling our water to San Francisco. John Mensinger and Paul Campbell both failed to speak out against the proposed water sale. For Mortensen to support a policy that not only allows but insists the General Manager and Attorney NOT allow requests for information if it takes up too much staff time or is disruptive, is unconscionable. Please remember former GM Allen Short deemed 15 minutes of staff time as too much.

Trust is something you build

Already our new General Manager Roger ‘the Dodger’ VanHoy has demonstrated a desire to withhold information from the public and also a penchant for presenting misinformation unless his feet are held to the fire by the Board. After remaining silent last week when asked if the ‘Serpa’ rule was part of the Governance policy we got a taste of things to come IF he’s allowed to go the way of his mentor Allen Short.

We are also following up with TID Board President Michael Frantz regarding Board of Control report concerns. More on that subject after we’ve talked with Director Frantz.

If you get the chance, ask “the Dodger” why MID is spending over $6,000 a year on having bottled water delivered when MID own’s two water treatment plants. His answer would be funny until you consider the elderly and low income people barely scraping by so his people in Ripon, the Woodland generator(near MJC) and, believe it or not, the MID legal Department, can drink bottled water. Maybe he doesn’t like the taste of ours.

When MID General Manager Roger VanHoy was asked during the last MID meeting if ‘the Serpa Rule’ was included in the Governance policy the Board

was getting ready to vote on, he looked down at the dais and acted as if he was going to write something and made no comment. And as I pointed out in the last article the Serpa Rule was indeed part of the Governance plan (BL-4 to be exact).

BL-4 states: (B) In the case of Board members or committees with MID employees or contractors requesting information or assistance without Board authorization, the General Manager or the General Council MUST refuse such requests that require, in their opinion, a material amount of staff time, or funds, or are disruptive.

Previously GM Allen Short had declared that conducting a salary survey was disruptive to morale and that potentially (the project didn’t have to be started) using more than 15 minutes of staff time was cause for not supplying the requested information.

Well I wasn’t the only person he bamboozled. Apparently he had assured more than one member of the Board the Serpa Rule wasn’t included there either. Sadly he mislead several of the Directors who voted him his permanent position as General Manager just last week. The honeymoon is over for ‘the Dodger’ after he stepped on his own…tail. Looks like the Board and the public are going to have a trust issues with Roger ‘the Dodger’ VanHoy in the future, and rightly so.

So I wouldn’t be surprised if the Serpa Rule gets removed from the Governance policy before the elections.

The two men who pushed hard to get the Governance policy in front of the Board as an action item (Tom Van Groningen and Glen Wild) are going around ‘campaigning’ for a few of the candidates saying, that like themselves the candidates believe our water should be sold to San Francisco on a long term basis and that we need to institute the Governance policy immediately.

The three candidates we should avoid like the plague are John Mensinger, Jim Mortensen, and Paul Campbell. We can NOT afford to for these men to get into office. Their irresponsible desire to send water out of our county to San Francisco on a first serve basis utilizing a long term (30 year) contract is shortsighted and foolish.

Just when you think things are somewhat under control down at the Modesto Irrigation District (MID) the old guard pulls a

fast one. And just like they have in the past they voted for an incomplete piece of legislation called Board Policies Regarding Board Governance Process and Staff Linkage. This was a ghost from the past since it was under this ‘guise’ they voted for the “Serpa” rule. This was how Allen Short used to manipulate the information made available to elected Board members and the public. One of the main parts of the original policy enabled the General Manager to use a ’15 minute rule’ as a tool to limit staff time to research questions from the MID Board.

Here is the scary part. According to General Manager Roger Van Hoy parts of the policy were not included in the material on the website and in the packets passed out to the public AND the Directors. Here is the incomplete segment the Directors and the public were allowed to see.

The General Manager stated links to “other” policies” would be added using hyper-links referencing the other unnamed policies and enforced. I specifically asked if any of the old SERPA rule were included. NO response was given. I requested a delay so the Board could read the entire policy they would be voting for and was ignored. Director Larry Byrd said he didn’t realize this was an action item and requested more time to study the proposed governance policy.

Unfortunately Unity of Control BL-4 which was approved IS the Serpa Rule

Once again the ultimate power is in the hands of the General Manager and the best we can hope for is a benevolent Dictator

. BL-4 states: B. In the case of Board members or committees with MID employees or contractors requesting information or assistance without Board authorization, the General Manager or the General Council MUST refuse such requests that require, in their opinion, a material amount of staff time, or funds, or are disruptive. In the past Allen Short used a 15 minute time limit as his policy for a material amount of staff time. And just what describes disruptive?

Tom Van Groningen and Paul Warda revisit the crime scene

Directors Van Groningen and Warda were among the Directors voting for the original policy and Glen Wild has been a rubber stamp from the beginning of his term four years ago. Sadly it appears the lame ducks are desperate for so sort of legacy. I would have thought they had placed enough anchors around the necks of ratepayers in the form of sky-high rates.

Paul Warda had promised to vote against this policy at the last meeting

He did come up to me during a short break five minutes prior to the Board taking up the policy and informed me of his rethinking his prior decision against the governance policy and that he would be supporting it. It seems a legacy, no matter how devastating, is more important to these three lame ducks than having helped improve MID.

You can register your unhappiness with their decision by emailing the MID Board at board@mid.org Ask them to take BL-4 out of the Governance policy immediately.

The following was spoken, and a copy presented for the record to the Modesto Irrigation District and the Modesto City

Forecast San Francisco Study #2 (Photo credit: davidyuweb)

Council on July 9, 2013. It followed a piece by the Modesto Bee Editorial staff which chided MID for not completing the water sale to San Francisco.

The main topic at the Modesto Council meeting that night was the decision to allow Fitzpatrick Homes to built a new subdivision consisting of 533 homes/apartments and whether or not Modesto had enough water for the addition.

NO WATER SALE – NO AMOUNT

By Joan Rutschow

According to MID’s Proposed Contract any water sale by MID to San Francisco will:

*Be permanent. It WILL forfeit MID water rights.

*It is not a “drop in the bucket”. It is for all our water. San Francisco gains “first right of refusal” for all of our water.

*Will breach an existing contract for drinking water with the City of Modesto. Modesto will sue MID for Breach of Contract. MID will possibly incure $1,000,000 per year in litigation costs, thus wiping out the income from the first 2,240 acre foot sale.

*Will sell water MID does not have to sell. From MID’s own data they are currently over contracted by 88,000 acre feet. That is nearly 3 times the size of the Modesto Reservoir.

*How can there be any water to sell if the City of Modesto has been on rationing for 10 years?

*San Francisco will get their water no matter what the availability is. If there is a drought, like right now, San Francisco will always get their water first.

*Will generate $19 million to MID for unfunded pension liabilities. Not a dime will be spent on infrastructure. Read the contract on MID’s website. Exhabit D. http://www.mid.org/about/newswroom/projects/watertransfer/documents/MIDwatertransfer2012.pdf

*Will COST MODESTO $200,000,000 PER YEAR in lost community revenue.

*Violates the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). In doing so, this will precipitate numerous lawsuits. It will make San Francisco the “lead agency” on our water forever.

*San Francisco DOES NOT NEED THE WATER. They are currently over produced by 29%. They forecast not needing additional water until the year 2035.

I would to thank Vance Kennedy for his comments this morning. I would like to comment on an article by Glen Wild that

Agriculture (Photo credit: thegreenpages)

appeared in the Modesto Bee on Sunday, April 21st –

Item #5 – “Those urban residents, the vast majority of our district customers, have their power bills inflated so that the MID irrigators do not have to pay for the cost of service. It is estimated to amount to at least 3% of their power bill”.

Speaking for myself, a private citizen, I am happy to pay 3% of my MID bill for the irrigators! Our irrigators raise livestock, grow hay and food crops. They wake up in the middle of the night to irrigate. They supply my food and the food for hundreds of thousands of people. A 3% fee is a good investment! 3% of a $50 MID bill is $1.50; 3% of a $100 MID bill is $3.00, 3% of a $150 MID bill is $4.50. 3% is a small price to pay for all of the services our farmers provide.

Let us not forget that the farmers subsidize the ratepayers. Their water recharges the aquifer and agricultural products bring millions of dollars to our district. Again, 3% of my MID bill is money well spent!